Sunday, June 5, 2011

Iceland: Day 5

"Good morning Brahm!"
"Good morning Robyn!"
"What do you think we should do this morning?"
"Umm, maybe climb a VOLCANIC CRATER because we're in Iceland!?!!"

This conversation may or may not have happened but it is how we started Day 5 of our trip - scaling the Hverfjall crater. It's 1km in diameter and right beside the Dimmuborgir lava fields we saw on Day 4.

Here's what it looked like from the bottom:

Here's a stitched panorama view from the top (click for big!)

Next we went to look at an area called Hverir - an area of intense geothermal activity. Here's me standing right beside a geothermal steam vent:

Robyn captioned this "Iceland: go as close as you want, just don't get burned".

These steam vents were LOUD. See video:

Also, there were tons of bubbling mud pots! So cool! Video:

Next we went to look at a geothermal power plant. Apparently they let people wander around inside and ask questions BUT there was no clearly marked way for tourists to go inside and gawk so we decided to stay off the site.

Robyn found a baby horse

We found a hidden little park area on a trail somewhere. Kind of strange because there are so few trees in Iceland.

We went to a geothermal "nature bath" to relax at the end of the day.

(I was wearing swimming trunks, I swear!)

Chaos on the road! Sheep have the right of way in Iceland - it's the law.

That was about all the action for Day 5! Stay tuned for Day 6: The most powerful waterfall in Europe, beautiful scenery, and bacon cheese spread!